by Marcelle Mccallum

Created on: March 13, 2009   Last Updated: March 15, 2009

As a child, my mother used to wait eagerly for the next installment of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space. As a child, I, in turn, did the same thing, and now, nearly fifty years later, my children do the same thing. Thanks in part to it's nature, Doctor Who has always been able to change adapt to the current fashions, allowing us decades of high quality family friendly drama set in the most amazing settings to be found.

Doctor Who, or "just The Doctor" is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, he is a traveler in his T.A.R.D.I.S. (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space). Time Lords are capable of regenerating, allowing the BBC to renew the character and, or the actor portraying the Doctor as and when needed. So far the Doctor is over 900 years old and shows no sign of slowing. He is always accompanied by a Companion, sometimes male and sometimes female. Some of these Companions choose not to continue traveling, some die, others are left behind against their will or accidentally. Many are from Earth, but many are not.

The T.A.R.D.I.S. is a living ship which is capable of traveling through both time and space. It is larger on the inside than on the outside. The Doctor's has the appearance of an old Police Box from the UK. Sadly, it is destined to retain this look, as it's camouflage circuits are broken. The Doctor is quite happy with this state of affairs.

The Time Lord and his Companion somehow seem to land where someone is in trouble or needing help. It is up to them to find the solution before some inevitable catastrophe occurs. Sometimes it is the Earth or Universe that needs saving, or it is a civil war or invasion. You can count on the aliens always being innovative, even back before the CGI which we have all become so used to today. Some look just like us, some are other Time Lords, some are completely unrecognisable. In what has become known as the Classic Doctor Who episodes there was a constant need for innovation, as the technology was simply not available. As a result, some of aliens are be represented by as little as some humanoid cutouts in cellophane attached to a fishing line being wobbled occasionally. Naturally, the new Doctor Who is much more polished than that with world class make up and costume teams as well as CGI at their disposal.

Once upon a time, each story would last weeks. You would have to keep tuning in to see the next installment of the story week after week, or day after day. This slowly got shorter and shorter until when it

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